


Maybe some distance can heal us both

by IcyLady



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Naruto
Genre: Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 14:25:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11557068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyLady/pseuds/IcyLady
Summary: In which Sasuke gets a new arm from Rockbell Automail and Winry gains new courage to face her reality. Set after chapter 699 of Naruto, at an undetermined moment in the FMA timeline.





	Maybe some distance can heal us both

**Maybe some distance can heal us both**

There was a young man, sitting shirtless in the examination and surgery room, patiently waiting as Pinako Rockbell looked at his left arm, or rather what was left of it. Winry, who was sitting in the room as well, tried to not stare, doodling possible arms the man might want. For some reason, she kept wondering about the alloy that would make a dark arm, black like the man’s hair. But maybe she could go for something that would be light, like the man’s pale skin, marred with some scars on his chest and belly.

 

Winry felt herself blush and forced her eyes down to the sketching pad. It wasn’t that she was not used to see people crippled by the lack of arms and legs. In fact, they were so common to her that she didn’t even glance twice and the missing left arm, the reason of the man’s visit. What kept catching her attention was the man’s handsome face, partially covered with black hair. The man’s toned chest and stomach without the barest trace of fat kept making her stare much longer than it was polite.

 

She swallowed. Usually the costumers, or patients, were not quite as well-build. Usually, she thought, they were at least a bit shy about being exposed like that, but the man didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. There was no awkwardness about the missing arm either, something that Winry couldn’t remember happening.

 

‘It’s old and long-since healed, nicely healed also. We will need to re-open your wound, to get to working nerves,’ Pinako stated finally, making Winry look back to them. The young man merely nodded in agreement, not a sign of nervousness in his posture or expression. Pinako frowned. ‘I think the most efficient would be to cut a slice off your arm,’ she added harshly.

 

‘Granny,’ Winry exclaimed in shock, jumping from where she was sitting. The man didn’t even flinch at Pinako’s suggestion or at Winry’s reaction.

 

‘Do what you need to,’ he said tonelessly. ‘Do you know of a hotel where I can rest to recuperate after the surgery?’ he asked, dismissing the previous topic. Pinako’s frown deepened.

 

‘We have guest rooms for patients. We supervise the first stage of rehabilitation anyway,’ she said coldly. The man acknowledged the information with another nod and asked about the design of the arm. Pinako glanced at Winry meaningfully: it was her job after all.

 

‘It depends on what you need it to do, sir. We do all our automail custom fit,’ the girl piped in enthusiastically, focusing the man’s attention on herself. Her smile faltered slightly when she caught a glimpse of the weird eye hidden behind his hair, but she got a hold of herself quickly and focused on the other, black eye.

 

‘Please call me Sasuke, Miss Rockbell,’ the man said politely. He only gave them his first name when he came, asking for an automail arm. When they had asked, he said that he was from very far away and strongly discouraged them from following up on the topic. Now, Pinako mumbled something about leaving them alone and the man got dressed with the ease that few of Rockbell Automail’s patients displayed.

 

‘Alright, Sasuke,’ Winry chirped. ‘The design of your arm is largely up to you, in fact, although we are of course limited by what is available on the market and, more importantly, how much you want to spend on your new arm,’ she explained, getting serious. The man nodded in understanding.

 

‘Can we start from the best option possible and then change things if the price is too high?’ he asked in that polite, somewhat dead tone on his. Winry beamed and it took all her willpower to not hug the man: she loved working without financial restraints. It didn’t happen all that often.

 

‘Tell me what you need, Sasuke.’

 

**})i({**

 

Winry Rockbell looked at the arm she has created. Like all automail it was one of a kind, adjusted to the particular needs of the customer, but this one was a true work of art. Well, in fact it depended on the point of view, because the arm, although black, looked very natural. Most of the time, Winry preferred the large automail, equipped with crazy gadgets, but Sasuke turned out to be surprisingly boring in that aspect. He didn’t want any functions or weapons built in, any outstanding features at all. The black arm wasn’t even shiny: something about remaining hidden in the shadows.

 

It was beautiful thought. Slim, like Sasuke’s real arm, it was build according to precise measurements to resemble the real arm to the best of Winry’s abilities. Even the ring that would go around what was left of Sasuke’s arm was thin, relying on some fastenings that would be implanted into the man’s shoulder, all as discreet as possible but supposed to withstand acrobatics. To touch it felt like satin, but was covered with a layer of coating that made it matte and so black it looked like it was absorbing all light.

 

As soon as they moved on from the functionality, Winry found out that for all the simplicity of the outer design, Sasuke was extremely exigent about the characteristics of the arm. Aside from his insistence that the arm needed to withstand acrobatics, he wanted the hand perfectly manoeuvrable. To illustrate his point he showed Winry some complicated “seals” he needed to be able to make with his fingers and wrists and the speed he wanted to do it at. In consequence, she spent a lot of time working on the hand and wrist to meet his expectations. Furthermore, the arm needed to be strong, resistant and silent. He stressed the “silent” many times and Winry tried out new ways of managing articulation to avoid any sound whatsoever. Also, it turned out that Sasuke really liked Winry’s idea of black. Later, when Winry spent over a month looking for an alloy that fulfilled all conditions, she wished she had never suggested black, but she found it eventually. It was expensive.

 

When Sasuke came to see the design, three months after his first visit, he didn’t even blink at the price Winry named. He didn’t seem bothered by the harnesses that she wanted to put on his shoulder either, accepting the explanations she made about the requirements if he really wanted to be sure he was able to do acrobatics with such a thin ring around his arm. He simply expressed his satisfaction with the design and asked when he should come for the surgery. It was four months ago: Winry has given herself a lot of time, wanting to make the expensive arm perfect.

 

Now it was ready and Sasuke was back for in Resembool for the third time. He didn’t even try to hide his awe when she showed him the arm and he thanked her with more sincerity than she has ever heard in his voice. The memory made Winry smile, pride swelling in her pleasantly.

 

‘Winry, will you stop smiling at that arm?’ Pinako called out, snapping the girl out of her day dreaming. ‘It will be useless if you don’t attach it to the owner,’ her grandma added, making Winry grimace a bit.

 

‘Would it kill you to praise me for once?’ she complained half-heartedly. They both knew she didn’t mean anything by it, but Sasuke, seated on the surgery table, looked faintly worried. Winry smiled at him. ‘Please lay down. I’ll prepare you while granny gets everything ready,’ she said with the most pleasant tone she could force into her voice. After all, what was going to happen would be incredibly painful for the man in front of her.

 

‘Of course,’ he agreed and complied with all her directions. He didn’t look nervous at all, which made Winry nervous in exchange. She wasn’t used to such calm from the people about to undergo the painful surgery. It made her wonder if he maybe didn’t understand what it meant that he was going to be aware when they would connect the port to his nerves. But he said nothing when she strapped him to the bed tightly, so maybe he did and for some reason that sent a cold shiver down Winry’s spine. Usually, when they realized just exactly what was going to happen, the patients had an attack of hysteria. Many backed out right then.

 

‘Alright, young man,’ Pinako started energetically, turning around on her high chair. ‘You don’t look ready to faint, good. You’ll get there soon enough,’ she muttered. Sasuke only glanced at her and then looked away, once he noticed the saw in her hand.

 

Winry looked away as well. She didn’t like that part of the surgery. It was necessary, she knew, and Pinako has given Sasuke some anaesthetic, but he would still feel a lot of it. Working with the nerves right afterwards meant that they couldn’t put him out completely, because they needed to know that he felt the connection of the port. The price to pay for a new limb was pain.

 

Sasuke did not scream, which meant Winry heard all the other sounds. She wished he had screamed, everybody screamed if they had to go through that. Pinako muttered something Winry would rather not hear, before asking the girl for assistance. And Winry assisted, ignoring how the pale face of their patient became paper-white and how harsh his breathing was. No matter how many times she assisted in the surgery, it still got to her, but there were more important things she needed to focus on. Without her grandma needing to ask, she handled the right tools and took the ones that were not needed anymore.

 

They worked in focused silence, never once needing to talk through what was for them a routine surgery. The clinking of the tools and Sasuke’s harsh breathing were the only sounds until he did scream, when they connected the port.

 

**})i({**

 

Sasuke was the first, since Edward, patient to get up from bed immediately after regaining consciousness, which happened much earlier than they expected. Winry and Pinako jumped in surprise when he descended the stairs, silent like a ghost, while they were having a dinner in the evening after his surgery. He was much more graceful than Edward about it also, but it was an unfair comparison: he had both of his own legs.

 

‘You should stay in bed for a while, let your body recover,’ Pinako yelled, jumping up from her chair while Winry blushed. Sasuke came down shirtless, his new, black arm hanging motionlessly by his side, as though it wasn’t properly connected to his nerves. Winry tried to focus on the arm, which looked very alien despite, or maybe because of, being almost an exact mirror image of his right arm.

 

‘I don’t have much time to recover,’ he replied calmly, but even Winry could hear the edge of pain in his voice. She knew immediately that his arm was connected correctly and that it was perfectly motionless only because moving it hurt. ‘Please tell me what training I can do for the rehabilitation,’ he added, seemingly disregarding the pain he couldn’t help but show.

 

Winry’s eyes widened, memories of Edward demanding the same though much louder flashing in front of her eyes. Pinako scowled at the man standing next to the table. She grabbed a cup that was next to hers, Winry only then realizing that there have been three cups not two, as though Pinako expected what was happening. Her grandma filled the spare cup with some water and slammed it on the table in front of Sasuke. It was unnerving how he did not flinch at the violent gesture.

 

‘Take a drink,’ she challenged coldly. Winry remembered her saying the same to Edward, as well as to some other patients who, while not as ambitious as Ed and Sasuke, still wanted to speed up their recuperation. Unlike Ed, who shouted a challenge when Pinako corrected herself that she meant for him to pick the drink up with the automail arm, Sasuke said nothing. He also seemed to understand what Pinako meant without her having to say it.

 

Very slowly, with visible effort, he raised the black arm towards the cup. Winry held her breath. She could see Pinako watching the man like a hawk. She knew that she was watching for the signs of pain but there was nothing on the pale face, still paler than usual from the surgery. Painstakingly slowly, black, slender fingers wrapped around the cup and tightened, shaking. Sasuke went a tone paler and there was sweat on his face, from the effort, but he didn’t stop. Winry wished he would, feeling exactly like she had when it was Edward doing the same.

 

He lifted the cup off the table, making Winry gasp breathlessly. He was shaking and Winry could see his right hand fisted tightly, but the cup travelled upwards steadily. By the time it was halfway to his lips, he was as pale as during the surgery and Winry could see that he was clenching his teeth against pain. A drop of sweat fell from his chin. He continued, focused completely on the cup he was holding, his arm moving slower with each passing second but not stopping. Pinako cursed under her breath.

 

Just when it looked like Sasuke was going to be the first ever to pass Pinako’s test, the man shuddered violently and the cup slid out of his black fingers. Faster than Winry thought possible under the circumstances, Sasuke tried to catch it with his normal hand but missed and the cup shattered against the floor. Winry and Pinako jumped at the sound, while Sasuke only winced, breathing shallowly from effort and pain.

 

‘Not even Ed-’ Winry started in a shocked whisper in the silence that followed the crash.

 

‘Ed was a child,’ Pinako replied harshly, but Winry could see the awe on her face. None of those who had pushed for faster rehabilitation had gone that far with the cup. Unaware or ignoring their looks, Sasuke used his normal hand as a support as he slowly lowered the automail.

 

‘I’m sorry about the cup,’ he muttered. He sounded upset at himself, Winry supposed not only because he broke the cup. She remembered Ed crying out in frustration, cursing himself for being so weak. Pinako waved the apology away.

 

‘Don’t worry about it. It was expected, plus you’re not the first, impatient kid I had here, trying to push himself harder than he should,’ she informed him dryly. Sasuke, visibly forcing himself to breathe steadily in and out, looked at her.

 

‘It’s been a while since anybody called me a kid,’ he countered just as dryly, but he didn’t seem insulted at all. Pinako barked a laugh.

 

‘Winry, get the man something to eat since he came down for dinner,’ she said, mockingly putting an accent on the word “man”. Sasuke smirked but didn’t comment otherwise and Pinako turned to him while Winry went to pick up a third plate. ‘Take rest tonight, let your body mend itself after the shock of the surgery and sleep. This also is important. Tomorrow we can start the rehabilitation if you so wish,’ she promised.

 

‘Thank you,’ Sasuke replied gratefully, bowing slightly. Pinako frowned to cover how awkward she felt at being thanked so earnestly. Sasuke, in turn blushed a tiny bit when Winry informed him that Pinako was thoroughly impressed by his achievement and that he was the only one who managed to actually lift the cup off the table on the day of the surgery, or on the first try for that matter.

 

It didn’t surprise anybody when Sasuke set himself a punishing pace in the rehabilitation, starting already from the following day. Very much like Edward, he pushed as hard as he could. Like Edward, he puked blood and fainted numerous times, not paying any attention to Pinako’s warnings that he was going to make it worse if he continued. Like Edward, he barely suffered a setback from what he did and progressed faster than any textbook thought possible. It made Winry wonder what drove him.

 

**})i({**

 

‘I know I might be overstepping my boundaries, but how did you lose your arm?’ Winry asked one evening, when she and Sasuke were sitting outside the house after a long day. Whenever it didn’t rain, they sat out there in the evenings. Sometimes they were silent and Winry wondered what their guest was thinking about, what he saw with the gaze that looked through the starred sky. Often, Winry was telling him about her day, enjoying having somebody to talk to. Rarely, Sasuke spoke about his travels.

 

That day, she was exhausted after building a particularly complex leg automail that was going to be attached right at the hip of her next customer. Sasuke, she suspected, had spent the whole day training, now that he could move more or less freely. The previous day she had seen him punching trees, for example, jumping between them in a way that made Winry understand why he wanted his arm to withstand acrobatics. All his training looked like fighting and it made her wonder whether he was military of some kind, which led to her indiscreet question.

 

‘I tried to kill my best friend,’ Sasuke said after a long pause. His toneless voice was barely a whisper, but the words hit Winry like she imagined a punch from a metal arm would. She looked at him, wide-eyed, but he was looking ahead, through the starred sky at something she could never see. There was a sad expression on his normally blank face. ‘I am not a good man, Miss Rockbell.’

 

‘You don’t look like a bad man either,’ Winry replied, carefully choosing her words. Their patient hasn’t once done anything that would hint he had any bad intentions. Instead, he looked a bit like Edward: as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Winry’s heart ached at the thought of her childhood friend: she wished she could do something for him, something more meaningful than fixing up his arm after he smashed it in yet another fight.

 

Sasuke laughed humourlessly at her words and looked down at his hands: one flesh and bone, one black, smooth metal. Winry followed his gaze, wondering how it really felt to have an automail. For all her talking about how amazing metal limbs were, she had no idea. Slowly, he clenched both hands into fists, the black moving exactly like the other one. He opened them and joined into one of those “seals” he wanted to be able to perform, than another.

 

‘I made many mistakes in my life,’ he said quietly, forming another “seal”. Winry hoped he wasn’t going to actually do anything, whatever the “seals” did. ‘Some that cannot be undone, some that I can never repent for enough,’ he whispered and it sounded pained.

 

‘Everybody makes mistakes,’ she pointed out, thinking about the walking armour her childhood friend has become. She couldn’t imagine a worse mistake. ‘Some mistakes are horrible, terrifying wrongs people do in the best of intentions. Many of those are forgiven, even if those who made them don’t realize it,’ she said, looking at her hands, wrung together subconsciously. Alphonse never blamed his older brother for what they attempted together, yet Edward carried the weight of their childish insanity like it was only his sin. They both talked about bringing Alphonse’s body back and living happily ever after, but Winry knew that Ed would give his life if it brought his younger brother back.

 

She literally felt Sasuke’s gaze on her. When she turned to him, his black eye was curious, but also sad. She wondered if she could also see hope in that dark gaze, but if it was there it disappeared as he continued to look at her studiously. Then his sadness disappeared also and his curiosity faded until she was looking into familiar, blank eye, the other covered by his hair as usual.

 

‘You should be far too young to have this kind of experience,’ he said seriously, not a hint of judgement in his tone, just that dead detachment with which he normally spoke. Her first instinct was to look away, but then she frowned, remembering the basic information he had been forced to supply for the surgery.

 

‘You’re not all that much older than me, mister,’ she snapped testily, surprising even herself with the tone of her voice. ‘You speak like you were a grandpa, but you said you’re only twenty,’ she added somewhat calmer. He looked surprised for a moment, but swallowed it quickly and laughed shortly, painfully humourlessly, admitting that she was right.

 

‘I had to grow up fast though,’ he muttered after another moment of silence. ‘I was eight years old when my family was murdered,’ he added, sounding like he spoke almost against his will. He looked vaguely surprised even, but Winry was too shocked at his words to wonder about it. They fell silent again, until Sasuke frowned and spoke again: ‘I always assumed that normally kids-’

 

‘My parents died in war, when I was ten,’ she said, cutting of whatever assumptions he wanted to voice. She wasn’t even sure why it felt so important to let him know, only it occurred to her that Sasuke was somebody who could understand her pain. There were not many people around who could since Ed and Al were mainly gone. And Pinako never mentioned Winry’s parents and Winry thought that her pain might be even greater and never dared to start the topic.

 

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’

 

He sounded sincere and she only nodded, looking back at her hands. Silence fell between them after his apology. Eventually, Sasuke practiced some more “seals” and Winry watched.

 

**})i({**

 

‘War is a horrifying thing,’ Winry said another evening, when they were again sitting outside, watching the stars.

 

Earlier that day she has asked him if he could show her what the “seals” did. His immediate answer was “many things”, but when she glared pointedly he asked whether there was a lake within walking distance. There was, although it was rather long walk. They ended up having a pick nick there and, at some point, he stood at the border of the water, formed some of those “seals” quickly and blew fire. Literally. Winry felt her eyes grow wide, remembering another person who used fire as a weapon.

 

Ever since then she couldn’t quite get war out of her head. Now, in the calmness of the evening, she heard the words tumble out of her mouth seemingly without consulting her mind. “War is a horrifying thing”: such a truism! Surely she could do better, she thought.

 

‘It is,’ he agreed softly. The ease with which he agreed and the detachment in his tone made Winry feel like he didn’t quite understand the awfulness of the war. Without thinking, she went on to tell him what she has heard about the riots in Ishval and the war that led to the genocide of the country’s population. She could see him wince at some moments throughout her story, but when she finished his first question wasn’t what he expected:

 

‘Is this the war that has claimed the lives of your parents?’

 

She stared at him for a moment, before nodding. He repeated his apology and fell silent, looking through the starry sky again. Winry bit her lip, hesitating.

 

‘Was your family also-’ she trailed off and swallowed. She couldn’t make herself finish the question.

 

‘Killed in war?’ he asked in her stead and replied before she could nod: ‘No, they were murdered in their beds,’ he said. A cold chill ran down Winry’s spine at the words, spoken without the smallest trace of emotion. ‘Figuratively speaking of course,’ he added bitterly. ‘They were all over the streets, some in their houses. Maybe some were in their beds, I wouldn’t know.’

 

Another shiver shook Winry even as she frowned slightly. When he has said “family” before she thought he meant his parents and maybe a sibling or two. Sasuke must have noticed her confusion and guessed its source correctly. Tonelessly, politely, he explained her that by “family” he meant a “clan” and that it included four generations and a bunch of distant relations he didn’t even know the names of. It sounded like an awful lot of people to Winry.

 

‘But you-’ she started and hesitated again. A smile that twisted his lips was bitter and thankfully disappeared as fast as it appeared.

 

‘I was spared and manipulated into the biggest mistake of my life,’ he said, grimacing. ‘It’s not a story you want to hear, trust me. It’s not a story I want to tell or remember. If you want to listen to a story I can come up with something else, or you can tell me about that mysterious boyfriend of yours,’ he added, not so subtly changing the topic. He was rather efficient though, because Winry blushed as she realized that he meant Edward, whom he has seen on photos two days earlier.

 

‘Edward is not my boyfriend,’ she protested hotly, too late noticing that he was teasing her. Reading his expressions was nearly impossible. She cleared her throat and continued in a more dignified manner, ignoring the tiny smirk on his lips. ‘He and Alphonse are childhood friends. They used to live there,’ she said, pointing towards the hill nearby, to the ruins she could not make out in the night. He followed her gaze obediently, even though there was nothing to see.

 

‘It must have been a long time ago,’ he commented and, at her question, pointed out that there were ruins on the top of the hill. And for a split of a second she thought that his eyes were red, but when he looked at her for explanation the eye she could see was black.

 

‘It’s a long and complicated story. Ed and Al are alchemists,’ she replied. He nodded in understanding: either there were alchemists where he came from as well or he learnt about them beforehand. ‘I know them since I can remember and we went to school together. Their father left them years and years ago. I don’t think I ever saw him. Their mother was a friend of mine and also of granny, but she died of illness. Granny helped them a lot, so they’re almost like brothers to me, even if they lived in that house, not here. One day they made a horrible mistake. Their alchemy backfired terribly,’ she paused, shuddering. Sasuke waited patiently for her to continue.

 

‘Ed promised he will undo the consequences and Al just wants to be with him I think. They burned their house to not be tempted to turn back and they left, gone travelling to find a way to undo their mistake. I miss them. I cannot tell them that some mistakes don’t need undoing, because it is their life and it’s important. But sometimes I just selfishly wish they came back and stayed with me. I have granny, alright, and the people in the village are nice and all, but it feels so lonely without them. It’s like a part of my heart is missing.’

 

Sasuke said nothing and Winry was grateful that he pretended to not see her tears. If he was curious about what has backfired he didn’t show it and Winry promised herself to not ask about his past anymore. She was too busy with her thoughts and wiping away her eyes to notice how tightly his hands were clasped together until he slowly, forcefully moved them apart and pressed flat against his thighs.

 

‘I guess it’s not a happy story either, I’m sorry,’ she apologised after a moment, when she felt calm enough to speak. She laughed sadly, feeling lighter now that she said all that. She could never voice those thoughts in front of granny, much less Ed and Al. ‘I can only wait and pray they will succeed. I can only hope they know that it’s alright to fail as well, that I will love them no matter what they do and that they always have a home here,’ she added and sniffed, looking at her hands. There was so little she could actually do.

 

‘I’m sure they know,’ Sasuke said in a strangled kind of tone she has never heard him use. In the ensuing silence, she heard him draw a shuddering breath and for some reason, Winry didn’t dare looking up at him right then. ‘This kind of feelings, they don’t need to be expressed to be known. When your friends look at you, I’m sure they know. I’m sure that your feelings give them strength to continue and that they also can’t wait to be back here, with you. I’m sure they will come back as soon as they can,’ he added firmly, even though his voice was barely a hoarse whisper.

 

Winry didn’t dare asking how he knew with such certainty, but his words filled her with warmth and calmness. She would believe him and she would stay strong, waiting for when Edward and Alphonse came back to her. She knew that she could do it.

 

**})i({**

 

The first stage of Sasuke’s recovery has been deemed finished by Pinako, even faster than Edward had managed although admittedly Sasuke only had one artificial limb to deal with. He also was very obviously more fit before the surgery: Winry has only seen glimpses of him before, but just from his body build it was clear. Thus it made sense that it was easier for him to coordinate the new arm, not that Winry was happy about him leaving.

 

He had stayed much longer than most patients did, simply because he lived so far away and Pinako wanted to be able to check up on his arm until he said there was no pain and a bit more, probably suspecting he would hide his pain. He was good at it, better than Edward, Winry would think. She wished he could stay long enough to meet Edward, to know the one who was so important to her and to understand why she could not ask him to abandon his mission. She was sure Sasuke would realize very fast upon meeting Alphonse. She also wondered if knowing what Ed and Al have done would put his mistakes into a different perspective. He has helped her with his words and she would have liked to help him.

 

But Edward gave no hints of visiting last time they talked and Sasuke needed to free the guest bedroom for the next patients. There was one coming that day and the next one the day after and there were only two spare bedrooms in the house. And so Sasuke was packing and Winry went up to his room, stopping in the doorway with her arms crossed.

 

He didn’t give any sign of noticing her presence, but she knew he had. He always knew who was around in some sort of inexplicable way. She watched how he stuffed the last of the few belongings he brought with him into his travelling bag. She noticed how he favoured his real hand, how, despite the amazing and enormous progress he made, his automail didn’t move with quite the same grace as the rest of him did. She remembered seeing him before the surgery: perfectly capable of doing just about anything. He was completely unlike all the other patients who simply couldn’t get on with their lives properly without a limb.

 

‘I hope nobody has the time to kill me before I get really used to that arm,’ he laughed humourlessly, finally acknowledging her presence in the doorway. She certainly hoped that the threat of being killed was just a joke on his part, but she pushed that thought away for favour of pursuing more interesting topics.

 

‘If you were so good without it, why spend all the money?’ she asked, because she couldn’t pass up on such an opening to ask the question that has plagued her for nearly all of his stay. People came for automail for different reasons, but it all boiled down to a simple fact: they needed it. The man in front of her was struggling to adjust and she knew that he honestly did not need that arm.

 

Wordlessly, Sasuke closed his small, travelling back and straightened. He glanced around the room to check that he hasn’t forgotten anything and then grabbed his black cloak from the chair. She watched him put it on, almost forgetting that he could help himself with the automail. He clasped it with one hand and grabbed the long handle of his bag, easily swinging it onto his shoulder. Only then did he look at her with that dark eye of his, the other, the weird one, hidden behind his hair.

 

‘So that I can hold my child properly,’ he said tonelessly, his gaze not leaving hers.

 

‘Oh,’ was the only thing Winry could say. She didn’t know what kind of answer she has expected, but that wasn’t it. She forced herself to blink before her eyes would pop out of her face. They grew so wide she thought they could. Sasuke smiled at her. It was small, but it was warm and sincere.

 

‘Thank you, Miss Rockbell,’ he said, bowing. He formed a one-hand seal, very clearly still not completely used to the fact that he now had two hands, and disappeared.

 

‘It was a pleasure, Sasuke,’ she replied into the empty room.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a line from Apocalyptica's "Cold blood".


End file.
